Holly Poultry has commissioned an 80,000-square-foot production facility in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, purpose-built to support its accelerating retail business — a strategic pivot for a company that has served foodservice customers for more than three decades. The expansion is projected to create 140 net new jobs and gives Holly Poultry a dedicated manufacturing platform separate from its legacy foodservice operations.
The Retail Growth Case
The catalyst is two branded lines — Easy Street and One Fine Chicken — plus an expanding portfolio of private-label programs. Easy Street targets the convenience segment of the fresh poultry case: No Antibiotics Ever chicken thighs arrive pre-diced and dry-seasoned in flavors including Korean BBQ, Street Taco, Peruvian, Shawarma, and Chili Crisp, with a claimed fridge-to-plate time of roughly seven minutes. One Fine Chicken occupies value positioning, pricing No Antibiotics Ever fresh chicken below traditional national brands. Both lines compete in a fresh poultry aisle that has seen sustained pressure on conventional commodity chicken as shoppers seek added value and cleaner sourcing claims.
At top-performing retail accounts, Easy Street is averaging more than 30 units per store per week on a three- to four-flavor set — a velocity figure that justifies dedicated capacity. Current retail distribution spans Giant Food, The Giant Company, Harris Teeter, ShopRite, Shaw's, and Hannaford, a footprint concentrated in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
Capacity Meets Category Timing
The supply-side investment arrives as fresh poultry suppliers navigate a competitive stretch. Avian influenza cycles have intermittently tightened live-bird supply, while input and labor costs remain elevated versus pre-pandemic baselines. Building owned, dedicated capacity rather than relying on co-manufacturing gives Holly Poultry direct control over throughput, SKU innovation, and speed-to-shelf — competitive advantages that matter as retailers rationalize fresh-case sets and demand faster new-item response times.
Private-label growth adds a second revenue stream that can utilize the same production lines at higher utilization rates, improving plant economics across the facility. For regional and national grocery operators, Holly Poultry's expanded footprint represents a potential domestic-sourcing alternative at a moment when supply-chain resilience remains a procurement priority. The company's foodservice heritage — three-plus decades of volume production and food-safety infrastructure — also lowers the due-diligence barrier for retail buyers evaluating new private-label partners.
"We saw an opportunity to bring more to the fresh chicken case, and the response from retailers and consumers has reinforced that," said Zach Fine, CEO of Holly Poultry. "This facility is a major investment in that opportunity. It gives us the capacity to serve the customers choosing our products today while creating room to expand into new retailers, build new private-label partnerships and keep pushing what fresh poultry can be."
Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation president and CEO Amy Gowan called the investment a reinforcement of the region's role in Maryland's food manufacturing sector. For foodservice operators and supply-chain executives tracking protein sourcing trends, Holly Poultry's retail build-out signals that mid-sized poultry processors are increasingly willing to bifurcate their production infrastructure to chase higher-margin branded channels. Watch this segment for continued category innovation as operators and retailers alike push for premium fresh poultry differentiation.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
